As the WorldSkills Kenya Mechatronics pilot competition entered day three, four teams from TVET institutions and four teams from Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) are today battling out in the tough five-hour stage three of the competition.
The TVET teams competing today are from Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), North Eastern National Polytechnic (NENAP), Masinga TTI and Katine TTI. The host Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, which is representing universities of Technology, has four teams remaining in the competition.
The competition was officially opened on Monday by TVET Authority Director-General Dr Kipkirui Langat when 17 institutions from different TVET colleges and the University of Technology faced off in a one-week trailer for honours in the Mechatronic. The pilot is expected to continue until Friday when the winners of the pilot will be announced.
Four teams with the highest marks in today’s test of nerves will proceed to the next level of the competition tomorrow while the last four will join the other teams that have already dropped out.
According to the competition lead expert Prof. Jean Bosco Byiringiro, the team of two students are today expected to show their abilities in operating the Human Machine Interface (HMI) that has been aligned in seven workstations.
“The teams are expected to switch on the various work stations, program them and command the machines to carry out certain tasks. The exercise will take five hours and within this time, each team will assemble and wire the machines in the work stations, program the systems and create an interface in the computer and command it to carry out a task they have been assigned. They will do all these without using their phones or the internet.” Prof. Byiringiro said.
After the five-hour exercise, the judges will go to each group and check out how the students have wired and assembled parts of the machines and programmed them and if the HMI can carry out seamlessly the tasks assigned.
Each team will also earn marks on their presentation skills, workstation organizational management and the use of appropriate terminologies and concepts on the subject matter.
